Category Archives: WebSearch

How the Digital Revolution Changed Our World

An visual chart in the current Newsweek sums up many of the changes we have seen over the past decade: Exactly How Much Are The Times A-Changin’? The categories that are in decline speak volumes: The US Postal Service is … Continue reading

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Springo

I have always been a fan of the idea of creating a mediated search engine – one in which the results have been reviewed in order to ensure a lean, relevant results list. The reality of the idea is, shall … Continue reading

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Google Library?

As the Google Books settlement works its way to becoming reality, it is becoming apparent that Google Books will be transformed into something very much resembling a library. Think of how this might change our roles in society. found via … Continue reading

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TinEye Reverse Image Search

TinEye is an image search engine with a twist:  you provide it with an image, and it returns a list of websites utilizing that image. I can quickly think of a few really good uses of this service: You have … Continue reading

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Feedmil

Feedmil is a search engine for RSS feeds.  It does this specific task very, very well.  Search for feeds relating to any keywords you wish, and modify your results using a set of slides that emphasize/de-emphasize words that show up … Continue reading

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Google and Microformats

Google has made the jump into supporting Microformats as well as RDFa, calling their implementation “Rich Snippets”! This is great news on several different levels. Semantic markup within web pages provides a way to target searches much more effectively.  TechCrunch … Continue reading

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Stupid Disclaimer

A brief rant, if you will accomodate me for a moment: I encountered a disclaimer in an e-mail that strikes me as extreme enough to mention: This email, and any attachment, is intended only for the person or entity to … Continue reading

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Social Backrub

This is just one of my passing thoughts, which I suspect is understood by many, but not necessarily expressed this way: Google’s PageRank is, for all practical purposes, a form of social networking applied to the concept of a particular … Continue reading

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TicTOCs in the OPAC

File this as a future wish-list item for your online catalog: There is a new and interesting way to connect an OPAC search result for a journal to the full-text journal articles, and it is called ticTOC.  The application of … Continue reading

Posted in Libraries, Library 2.0, Online Services, OPAC, Periodicals, Search, Web Design, WebSearch | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Heavenly Library in Austria

Jessamyn posted this link, in an effort to help identify the library.  I wasn’t the first to come up with the correct answer, but it was a treat to scan several pages of Google Images containing library frescos before finding … Continue reading

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Library Books in your Search Engine

Why you can’t find a library book in your search engine is an article in The Guardian.  It is a good overview of the broader issues surrounding the OCLC Licensing problem, and is written for the general reader (i.e. this … Continue reading

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Middlespot Search Interface

Think of Middlespot as a Zotero-like organization tool for web searches.  Perform a search, and you have several ways to explore the search results, as well as saving collections of results in what they call a “Workpad”. The fastest way … Continue reading

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A Useful Amplification

A Useful Amplification of Records That Are Unavoidably Needed Anyway is an essay by Brett Bonfield which, dare I phrase it this way, usefully amplifies several of the major web-based entities which are intertwined with libraries.  These include (but aren’t … Continue reading

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LIFE Photo Archive

About 2 million images from the LIFE Photo Archive have been digitized and are available via Google Image Search.  What is even better is that, over the next few months, the remaining 8 million images from the collection will be … Continue reading

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2008 Presidential Election Search Engine

The 2008 Presidential Election Search Engine is a Google Custom Search Engine created by the University of Kansas Library. It is a great resource in that one can find the needles of information in the haystack of campaign rhetoric. found … Continue reading

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APML

APML stands for Attention Profiling Markup Language.  Its purpose is to permit a standardized way to gather and transfer your interests from site to site across the web.  It is built using XML, and is definitely a new technology that … Continue reading

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UNdata

UNdata is a search tool for the many informational databases that the United Nations maintains. It is straightforward, easy to use, and effective in attaining what you need. If only the UN as a whole worked so well 😉 via … Continue reading

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Intelways

Intelways is an interesting search site.  It isn’t a meta search tool, but it does harness multiple search engines to create an improved experience. As with many things on the web, the best way to understand it is to try … Continue reading

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Wikia Launched

Wikia, the search engine designed around the concept of wikis, has been launched in alpha.  This means that a) it isn’t going to work as well as anyone wants, and b) no fair comparing it to Google et. al., except … Continue reading

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USA.gov Mobile

USA.gov Mobile is a great little search tool for government web pages and toll-free numbers (and it is well designed for your PC, even though it is made for mobile browsers). found via ResourceShelf

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